The NAS (Network Attached Storage) market is currently one of the fastest growing segments of the overall storage market. NAS devices typically take the form of stand-alone devices or systems that contain their own storage, processing, connectivity and management resources. Through these internal capabilities, the NAS device becomes a storage resource that connects to any network enabling many devices on the network to share data via the NAS device.
A NAS device is a term that is often used to refer to a specialized file server that connects to the network to provide storage capacity to network-connected users. NAS devices typically contain a slimmed-down (micro-kernel) operating system and file system. NAS devices often process only input/output (I/O) requests by supporting popular file sharing protocols such as NFS (UNIX) and SMB (DOS/Windows). NAS devices also typically use traditional LAN protocols such as Ethernet and TCP/IP to communicate over the network. Some general-purpose computers using full-blown operating systems such as Windows or UNIX are often labeled as NAS products because they can provide storage that is attached to a network. However, a pure NAS device is one built from scratch as a dedicated file I/O device. As used herein, the term “NAS device” broadly refers to a device that makes data storage resources available to network-connected user devices. A “dedicated NAS device” is a device whose primary operational purpose is for providing NAS services.
A related term is the storage area network (SAN). “SAN” is a term that is often used to refer to a back-end network connecting storage devices to servers via peripheral channels such as SCSI, SSA, ESCON and Fibre Channel. By using a SAN, the data storage traffic is off-loaded from the primary user network, which includes the user machines and the server machines. The servers then utilize the SAN to move and store data in storage devices connected to the storage network. SAN environments are becoming increasingly popular for enterprise storage solutions.
With respect to lower cost devices that are currently marketed as dedicated NAS devices, many have common personal computer (PC) specifications such as the following: Pentium III processor, 40 GB HD and a 10/100 Ethernet connection, along with other components. Considering the specifications of an average corporate desktop computer, the capabilities of these desktop computers often exceed the capabilities computers being sold as dedicated NAS devices, and these desktop computers often sit idle for significant amounts of time each day.